Canyon Overcomes Slow Start

Canyon overcame early jitters and convincingly defeated El Dorado in four games in a Southern Section Division II-AA girls’ volleyball wild-card playoff match Tuesday night at Canyon High.

The Comanches, making their first postseason appearance in Trent Jackson’s three seasons as coach, had trouble getting started, losing the first game, 15-9, but then rolled, 15-6, 15-4, 15-12, to advance to a first-round match Thursday at fourth-seeded Cerritos Gahr.

“We were all really nervous and kind of had the butterflies,” senior outside hitter Regan Riewerts said. “Once we pulled together it seemed to just flow and everyone did their part.”

Riewerts did hers especially well. She had a match-high 18 kills, nine of them in the decisive fourth game.

El Dorado (11-6), which had beaten Canyon twice this season, appeared ready to force a Game 5, taking an 8-3 lead. But the Comanches scored the next seven points to take a 10-8 lead.

El Dorado, which was led by senior outside hitter Sydney Patten with 11 kills, scored three consecutive points to retake the lead, 11-10. But the Golden Hawks could not sustain the rally, making too many late errors.

Canyon took a 13-11 lead on a block by outside hitter Paulette Seaman (14 kills) and sophomore middle blocker Danielle Monroe. El Dorado got another point and the teams traded several side outs before Canyon senior setter Meghan O’Neill made it 14-12 with a dink. Canyon won the next point on an El Dorado hitting error.

Canyon dominated the middle two games, scoring the final 10 points to win Game 2 and going on an 8-0 run to take a 13-3 lead in Game 3.